Happy Hour Roundup

* I noted below that BP is all but certain to cave to White House demands for an escrow account, and during the press gaggle, Bill Burton hinted that BP has already signaled as much in private negotiations:

"The signs from BP aren't that there is going to be a protracted legal battle over this or anything like that."

* After generations of independence, some Gulf Coasters asking for help *

A month into the oil spill, Bernard Johnson sat in his living room in this Gulf Coast fishing village watching news of the crude's slow and deadly seep into the bays and bayous where he has made a living for nearly three decades.

He thought of his wife and 5-year-old daughter. And he made a decision.

For the first time in three generations of fishermen, a Johnson would accept outside help. Days later, his wife, a school bus driver in St. Bernard Parish, applied for food stamps. The first check -- about $260 -- arrived on a Monday, 41 days after the Gulf of Mexico rig explosion.

"My daddy raised four of us with no help. My daddy's daddy raised 13 with nothing but what he made on the water," said Johnson, 43, whose family settled near the bayou after moving from the Canary Islands. "This is a first. I have never asked the government or anybody else for help in my life. I have never taken a handout. And it was hard for me to do, but we just don't know how this thing is going to turn out."

BG your comment from the previous thread, about Angle and Fiorina, is dead on.

There's gotta be some holdovers from such corporate "winners" that they can throw out into a campaign or appointment.

Hey, Andy Fastow gets out of prison in December 2011, just in time to be the GOP 2012 nominee's designated Secretary of the Treasury. Lloyd Blankfein as Fed Chair. Frabrice Tourre as his deputy. Gotta be someone from Arthur Anderson they can throw into SEC. Maybe Joseph Cassano from AIG Financial Products as U.S. trade representative.

You may want to ask for a comment from Sharon Angle, about her Scientology Organization forcing married teenage members, to undergo abortion procedures. .

How does that sit, with her Right Wing Christian Teabagger base?

http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1101759.ece

" Laura Dieckman was just 12 when her parents let her leave home to work full time for Scientology's religious order, the Sea Organization. At 16, she married a co-worker. At 17, she was pregnant.

She was excited to start a family, but she said Sea Org supervisors pressured her to have an abortion. She was back at work the following day.

Claire Headley joined at 16, married at 17 and was pregnant at 19. She said Sea Org supervisors threatened strenuous physical work and repeated interrogations if she didn't end her pregnancy. She, too, was back at work the next day.

Two years later she had a second abortion, this time while working for the church in Clearwater.

A St. Petersburg Times investigation found their experiences were not unique. More than a dozen women said the culture in the Sea Org pushed them or women they knew to have abortions, in many cases, abortions they did not want.

Some said colleagues and supervisors pressured them to abort their pregnancies and remain productive workers without the distraction of raising children. Terminating a pregnancy and staying on the job affirmed one's commitment to the all-important work of saving the planet.

"You just have a way of thinking,'' said Sunny Pereira, who was 15 when she entered the order. ''It all has to do with the Sea Org and what we're trying to accomplish. Everything that is a distraction is scorned.''

Ethan, good list. It makes me wonder whether they don't do it on purpose: fail at business try to get into government. It just confirms their view of things.

How bout try to offer up some smart GOPs to run for office. You know, someone who knows what they're talking about and what the consequences are of having incompetent Republicans getting elected over and over and now the whole party getting narrower and more ignorant.

"PHASE OUT TODAY, PHASE OUT TOMORRAH, PHASE OUT FOREVAH
Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle says the principle of phasing out Social Security and Medicare is non-negotiable to her. It must go. Social Securito Delenda Est!"
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/angle-getting-out-of-medicare-and-social-security-is-not-up-for-grabs.php?ref=fpblg

As I noted earlier, she's in DC now getting down with the Norquist/Cornyn crowd famous for their non-Washington establishment histories.

The position she voiced with such certainty above will not be repeated.

As opposed to Democrat Senators, who mostly inherited or married big money or never accomplished anything except getting elected to office. Like Al Franken, failed comic, failed radio talker. Like Barbara Boxer, zero.

You've got a great new candidate in Alexi Giannoulias, except for the failed and corrupt bank thingie.

But at least Robert Byrd was very successful at something -- as a Klan organizer -- before becoming a lifetime politician.

"It really sounds like the Fox hosts were more interested in shoehorning Angle into last week's narrative -- Sarah Palin's "mama grizzlies," tea partyers challenging the establishment -- then figuring out who she actually was." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/06/fox_news_bungles_sharron_angle.html

Well, yes, that is precisely what they are doing. But I think Dave is missing the larger picture here. It ain't just "last week's narrative".

In June 2007, an eBay employee claimed that Ms. Whitman became angry and forcefully pushed her in an executive conference room at eBay’s headquarters, according to multiple former eBay employees with knowledge of the incident. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter was delicate and was deemed to be strictly confidential.

The employee, Young Mi Kim, was preparing Ms. Whitman for a news media interview that day. Ms. Kim, who was not injured in the incident, hired a lawyer and threatened a lawsuit, but the dispute was resolved under the supervision of a private mediator. Two of the former employees said the company paid a six-figure financial settlement to Ms. Kim, which one of them characterized as “around $200,000.” "

@Greg - Ambinder has the same question as yours regarding Obama's speech tomorrow and the choice before him.

"Tomorrow night, in his 20 minute address to the nation, will President Obama go big? Or will he go small? Will he use the auspicious moment to argue for the imperative of carbon pricing, or will he greet the nation by announcing new regulations on part of the energy sector?

The President has said that he would rather be a one termer who gets big things done than he would avoid the burden of presidential leadership. He's given one speech on climate change recently. That speech was ... a speech. A good speech, but a speech. No follow through, publicly or privately. If he means what he says, he will Go Big..."

"ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The Republican nominee for a New Mexico congressional seat suggested during a radio interview that the United States could place land mines along the Mexican border to secure the international boundary."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/06/14/us/politics/AP-US-Candidate-Border-Land-Mines.html?_r=1&ref=news

Oh Bernie, will the president bring up Cap & Trade in his speech tomorrow as an energy issue or a climate change issue. Seems that an IPCC insider has revealed some new and perhaps telling info on the climate change side.

G Sargent, do the folks at the American Federation of State, County and Municiple Employees who placed the ad on your blog understand that the private sector and mostly (70 percent of jobs) the small business sector create the jobs? Do they understand that until very recently this administration was throwing the small business sector under the bus? Do they understand that it is a rising deficit created by this administration is what is going to kill job creation and the so called jobs bill will do nothing to change this scenario?

"Right now, our nation is at risk. We must get serious about our border security, and I have a concrete plan to do so: My plan includes an underground electric fence, with helicopter stations to respond quickly to breaches of the border."

Perhaps Rand and the Land Mine guy should get together, and plant a secondary line of mines and electric fences through out the lettuce fields. That should boost those right wingers kill ratio.

"Right now, our nation is at risk. We must get serious about our border security, and I have a concrete plan to do so: My plan includes an underground electric fence, with helicopter stations to respond quickly to breaches of the border."

Perhaps Rand and the Land Mine guy should get together, and plant a secondary line of mines and electric fences through out the lettuce fields. That should boost those right wingers kill ratio.

@actuator - I'll let the scientific community respond to the fellow. But we can note that you've linked to the National Post, a Canadian paper begun by Conrad Black (now in jail) which has consistently followed a climate denial editorial policy.

Further, we can also note that the quote the paper provides for you has been beheaded (or betailed) conveniently. Here's what they give you...

"The actual number of scientists who backed that claim was “only a few dozen experts,” he states in a paper"

Here's the full quote from the paper...

"That particular consensus judgement, as are many others in the IPCC reports, is reached by only a few dozen experts in the specific field of detection and attribution studies; other IPCC authors are experts in other fields."

What about Alvin Greene? He has a mental disability and is being used by some nefarious person or persons to make the Dem Party look like fools. He is going to go all the way through the campaign doing national interviews and even debating Jim Demint unless it can be proved that he is a plant. The Dems through in the towel. Unbelievable.

I don't know if actuator read the entire paper linked in the National Post, but as they've taken it out of context, we can pretty much disregard their conclusion. The scientists involved in the study are analyzing specifically the process of consensus building and not whether AGW exists or not. It's a methodology paper.

"Without a careful explanation about what it means, this drive for consensus can leave the IPCC vulnerable to outside criticism. Claims such as ‘2,500 of the world’s leading scientists have reached a consensus that human activities are having a significant influence on the climate’ are disingenuous. That particular consensus judgement, as are many others in the IPCC reports, is reached by only a few dozen experts in the specific field of detection and attribution studies; other IPCC authors are experts in other fields. But consensus-making can also lead to criticism for being too conservative, as Hansen (2007) has most visibly argued."

Like almost everyone else here I am looking forward to Obama's speech tomorrow. I am encouraged by the possibility that we may finally address our energy crisis in this country with concrete goals, dates, financial backing etc. However, keep in mind that just today Reid put Lieberman, Jeff Bingaman and Max Baucus in charge of consensus building on the energy bill. None of them would be my pick to get a decent bill through the Senate.

"Do they understand that until very recently this administration was throwing the small business sector under the bus?"

This is complete and total bullshite. Small business received fantastic tax cuts in the stimulus package with a reduction in payroll taxes. Beginning this year we will be able to exempt 35% of our health care bill for our employees, which will go up every year to reach 50%. And I have proven here numerous times all the stimulus money that has gone into the small business private sector.

Poor old Rand Paul....someone please call him a whambulance....wwwhhhaaaa..

The headline, "* Rand Paul really seems to dislike being asked questions he doesn't feel like answering." Is continuing evidence that he is a FAKE... It also makes him a bold-faced LIAR, and I'm a thinking that maybe folks that have an eye surgery scheduled with him MAY want to reconsider until he actually has a LICENSE TO PRACTICE... (board certified).

These clowns are just amazing... just throw stuff out there like Google or opposition research don't exist?? Did he and Mark Kirk from Illinois go to the same pee-party LIE training camp??? Amazing....

BTW...Cap-n-Tax has the very real and serious potential to put me and my companeros on the Mohawk out of work, or wage-stagnant. We are in the crosshairs as a sales/distributor for a very large US manufacturer (an already ahead-of-the-curve green one in the bargain.)

Hi Tao, the payroll tax cuts began in April of 2009 and they were for everyone, I forget how much it was, but I'm sure you can look it up as part of the stimulus. When your accountant figures out the payroll, it was an automatic lower percentage. Also, as an employer when you pay your portion of the payroll tax monthly, you've been paying less for over one year. The health care savings will come as a deduction when you do your 2010 income taxes.

Here's a list of all the small business tax breaks in the stimulus bill in addition to the payroll tax cut. Also, they passed another bill with small business tax breaks earlier this year. I'm not a huge fan of tax breaks unless they really do generate business investment, I'd rather see direct investment in the short term. But what do I know?